The horror works best first before the demonic deals the commune members make are revealed, when it’s just the mounting unease, then in moments like rituals with Dagon where the demons’ capricious and cruelty alongside the gifts they offer to create the sense of a horrible balancing act, but one someone could convince themselves they can benefit from if they are careful. Later when everything goes off the rails and people start dying left and right, demons are running rampant, it feels like too much happening without substance.
Some pieces of life on the commune, the relationships between the inhabitants, mixing support and toxicity, and the cult behavior the leader, Ash, had cultivated even disregarding the demons, could also be enjoyable, but weren’t explored much. The narrator's introspection on her experiences as a trans woman raised by a fundamentalist Christian mother, her past experiences with cults and conversion therapy gave her an interesting view on the commune -- half cutting through the idyllic portrait of trans community, self-sufficiency, and pure T4T love with a practiced eye for the darker side of things and half an increased vulnerability and longing to believe in Ash's vision.

Well, this book may not have been written with me in mind as its intended audience but I sure as hell enjoyed it. I found the writing style to be interesting and enrapturing. It was a unique plot that one I wasn’t sure was going to work, but made for a fun read.

I hate to say it, but I'm disappointed. The writing was just felt like a wattpad fan fiction, and it was just trying way too hard to seem raunchy.
I was so excited for this read, and I was really looking forward to the trans commune plot, but it just fell so short.
Some of the descriptors were okay, but the premise just felt like it was thrown down and stomped on. This could have been an amazing and shaking horror, and I see glimpses of that peaking through, but it just doesn't focus on that enough for me.
I love character development, but the main character's "whatever" attitude, curse filled vocabulary, and sex-driven lifestyle just put me off from the beginning and I never grew to like her.

another excellent horror novel for the ‘trans sapphic girl in a toxic yuri’ situation enjoyers, and idgaf if i’m the only one who is a part of that club. this felt a little disjointed at the end but overall it worked really well for me.

4.5/5

Herculine's narrator loses her job and has a demonic experience in the bathroom of a club, so she finally decides to take her ex girlfriend Ash up on her offer to visit her all trans-girl commune. The demons are nothing new, an ongoing presence since her experience with conversion therapy, but they are usually relegated to sleep paralysis demons she can fight with holy oil. With no job, shitty exes, and not much to lose, she finally takes the plunge. However, when she arrives, nothing is really as it seems, and she hasn't left the demons back in New York after all.

What follows was a frankly haunting and disturbing experience, that was so vividly written. This book was truly unlike anything else I have read, and I say that as a compliment. I can't speak to how well it captures the experience of being a trans woman, but the insight into the narrator's character was so interesting and raw. The book doesn't shy away from the horrors, both from the demonic experiences but also from the all-too-human experiences the narrator has had. The prose was accessible but challenging, so this book will definitely warrant another pass or two to really parse out some of the other details.

All of the characters were so messy and distinctive in their own way. Everything is upside down, and everyone felt so real and so human, as it were. Even the conceit of Herculine (the commune) itself is so human and real, to make a deal with a demon to fit in, when you've felt like that isn't possible any other way. The demon involvement also felt so familiar to me as a lapsed Catholic.

I have read some of Grace's articles prior to reading this book, and I really enjoy her style. I'm so glad I had a chance to read this ARC, and I am grateful to Saga Press, Grace, and NetGalley for the chance to review it!

First of all, thank you to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free e-copy of Herculine by Grace Byron for review. Herculine was a fantastic debut that will surely keep me invested in what Grace Byron does next. Herculine had a wonderful and very unique plot that kept me thoroughly engrossed in what was happening next. On top of that, which I thought was the best part of the novel, is the great character development. The narrator was a fully fleshed-out character that you come to sympathize with as they navigate a harsh world and learn to cope and thrive in it.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was really well done, I think what caught me the most was the writing style, it was more of an open ended poem than a strict narrative, but it still has a strong sense of story.

This was... a bit disappointing. I love trans stories, I really did enjoy the way this kind of felt like someone was writing a book in tweets (positive, don't worry), but I was really expecting more explicit horror. I was kind of going into this expecting some real gross shit and like real demons, but maybe that's on me because I haven't read the comps! I'd be very interested in reading more from this author, but this book didn't grip me like I wanted it to.

This jewel of a book lit up many familiar surfaces: sleep demons, the bated breath of bottom surgery, T4T sex, lesbian separatism, and mysticism. Grace Byron’s debut novel follows the narrator from Brooklyn back to Indiana, where she joins her ex-girlfriend’s all trans commune and wonders if life is worth living. Almost immediately this turns to whether life is worth fighting for—against many headed and tendril armed demons. Tendril: from the Latin for to hold, tener. While our own transsexual lives are full of monsters: conversion therapists, politicians, and chasers, HERCULINE—which recalls Goya’s Pinturas negras—holds the reader-spectator in its strong sticky fingers and reminds us that magic exists to protect, not destroy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for the ARC! And oof was this an unflinching look at the destructive forces of trauma and desire.

Since I can’t quote directly from Herculine, let me share a quote from Byron’s recent review* of Torrey Peters’s Stag Dance for a taste of the essence here:
“Some actions cannot be reduced to simplistic internal incentives. […] Gender, like art, Peters argues, is not always explicable. The choices we make on a whim can sometimes say more about us than our most calculated attempts at coherence.”

Herculine is in conversation with exactly this incoherence. It is a meditation on the impossibility of qualifying gender, the foolishness of romanticizing lust, and the messiness of pursuing a dysfunctional self-fulfillment. It is anarchic, queer, unpleasant, and funny.

The novel pulls in two directions. There are a lot of thoughts about existing in the world as a white transgender woman haunted by a fundamentalist Christian childhood. Our unnamed narrator delineates the stereotypes, the struggles, the trauma, and the self-flagellating ways she chases love and community and repeatedly fails to find them. She incisively peels away mirages of trans joy and solidarity to expose a rotten core of jealousy and toxicity. Her cognizant critiques here are enlightening and, at times, humorous. This is where the story really stands out with its refreshingly direct musings on establishing not only your existence but your wants and needs in a world that does its best to shut you down.

The demonic all-trans girl commune that ensnares our narrator becomes a sort of external echo of the women’s desires as they trade their humanity for their bodies. The actual story gets a bit muddled: despite some excellently descriptive scene-setting, the blocking is often awkward and rushed, and the narrator tells some truly horrifying events in rather mechanical, superficial prose that does little to capture the atmosphere and emotion of the commune. I wanted a deeper sense of both her paranoia and her feelings for her ex-girlfriend as the plotline approached its climax, but I was left mildly unsatisfied. Still, as a cultural reflection, the horror of the narrator’s encroaching demons and her contentious relationships with other trans women and with herself made this a provocative and invigorating read.

* “Torrey Peters Reimagines Transness in Stag Dance,” Vulture, March 11 2025

This book is an absolute knockout. The story of a seeming Utopia for trans women that is a whole lot darker than that. This is a book whose secrets are so fascinating and horrifying to uncover that I really don’t want to say more about the plot. But the writing is beautiful and assured, I truly am shocked this is a debut. It is such an emotionally raw and powerful look at the trans woman’s experience in a world that is so dangerous and so hateful towards them. I absolutely loved this book.

I was honestly not a fan of this book. The main character has no real sense of self or body, and I wasn't interested in her whatsoever. The ending felt rushed and nonsensical. I will say the sex scenes I thought were hot and authentic to the T4T experience. Overall, it wasn't a particularly good book in my opinion, and I'm not going to recommend it.

“Herculine” is Grace Byron's debut horror novel. The story follows the protagonist, a trans woman, as she leaves New York City and returns to the Midwest, where her ex-girlfriend is leading a commune or cult for trans women.

Initially, this idea appears appealing—taking a break from the harsh realities of city life and reconnecting with one’s roots. However, the narrator soon faces both metaphorical and literal demons.

At a time when trans women are often vilified, Byron takes this societal toxicity and turns it on its head. The horrors depicted in the novel include the cult-like, demonic commune, as well as very real dangers such as conversion therapy, Midwestern politics, liberal microaggressions, TERFs, internalized misogyny, transphobia, and much more.

I recommend this novel to fans of *Yellowjackets*, Torrey Peters’ *Stag Dance*, and Chuck Tingle’s *Camp Damascus* and *Bury Your Gays*. Thank you to S&S Saga Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

I would caution readers to check out the CWs before reading.